International
Conference Media and the
Public Sphere.
Evaluating Media Ethics in the Digital Era
Bucharest, Romania | October 23 - 24, 2014

In the world where information is the ultimate currency and weapon, journalism must continuously redefine itself. What role should media outlets assume when information is distributed and accessed almost instantly? How does the new information dynamic impact upon the quality and process of reporting? Is there any room for ethics in the journalism of the digital era? Reporting the facts and respecting an ethical code seem to have lost their place as the main guiding principles for high standard journalism. Confronted with disrupting factors such as citizen journalism, online whistleblowers and an entropic flow of information on social media sites, media organizations are forced to focus primarily on breaking the news first and on exploiting the most controversial (sensational) subjects. This practice furthers the raw information overload that the public has to sift through, which in turn determines how information consumers interact in the public sphere. The goal of this conference is to examine the reconfigurations of the public sphere in the context of the digitalized information economy. We seek papers that offer a multidisciplinary approach to the transformations of media ethics and reporting in the new information age.

While there may not be any definitive answers to the questions outlined above, here are some of the topics (the list is not exhaustive) to be addressed during the conference:

The role of the media in the new information dynamic;

Information transparency and security;

Newsgathering and privacy;

Newsworthiness, truthfulness and ethical values;

The digital public sphere;

Deliberation and the public sphere;

Politics, economy and whistleblower reporting;

Journalism vs. social media: the challenges;

Branding, story-telling and public sphere;

Digital identities and new diasporas;

Global news and soft power.

In view of the success of previous editions held in Romania (Bucharest, 2011), France (Lyon, 2012) and the U.S. (Athens GA, 2013), this year’s International Conference aims to cover a wide range of topics in communication, media studies, journalism and related fields and to bring together scholars and experts from different parts of the world. Past editions of the conference gathered participants from countries such as France, Austria, Romania, United Kingdom, Mexico, Brazil, India, Malaysia, Kuwait, China, Australia, United States and Turkey.

The abstracts (max. 500 words followed by 3-5 keywords) will be
submitted for review in electronic MS Word format. Please provide the
full names, affiliations, mailing addresses, telephone and fax numbers,
and e-mail addresses of all authors, indicating the contact author.
There will be accepted only one paper for each participant as a first
author. Abstracts will be submitted online to the following e-mail
address:conference{at}comunicare.ro.
The official languages of the
conference are English and French.
The authors will receive confirmation via e-mail.
Selected papers will be published, after the conference, in the
conference volume, or in the Romanian Journal of Communication and Public Relations (indexed in EBSCO, ProQuest, DOAJ). To this end, full papers will be re-submitted to peer-review process.

All manuscripts
submitted must follow the most recent version of the
APA style guide (6th American Psychological Association Publication
Manual).

Conference
fee

Conference fee is € 100 / participant.
For PhD and
MA candidates the conference fee is € 50 / participant.
The conference fee can be paid to SNSPA (Address: 6 Povernei St, District 1, Bucharest, Romania), in the following bank accounts, both open at CITIBANK, Calea Victoriei 145, District 1, Bucharest:

National University of Political Studies and
Public Administration
30A Expozitiei Bvd, District 1, Bucharest
The closest subway (metrou) station is 1 Mai on M4 (green) line. Change at Basarab station for M1 and connections to the city center. Subway map here.

There are several hotels close to the conference venue - here is an website where you can find them. You could also try the usual booking sites (tripadvisor, booking.com, etc), searching for hotels in the Northern part of the city.